In 1980, about 30 per cent of Americans received some form of government benefit. Today, as Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute has pointed out, about 49 per cent do. In 1960, government transfers to individuals totalled $US24 billion. By 2010, that total was 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown by more than 700 per cent over the last 50 years. This spending surge, Eberstadt notes, has increased faster under Republican administrations.

There are sensible conclusions to be drawn from these facts. You could say that the entitlement state is growing at an unsustainable rate and will bankrupt the country. You could also say that America is spending way too much on healthcare for the elderly and way too little on young families and investments in the future.

But these are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a fund-raiser earlier this year. Romney divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. Forty-seven per cent of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it . . . and they will vote for this President no matter what. These are people who pay no income tax.”

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that Romney really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to Veterans Affair? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

The comment suggests Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people; 92 per cent of Americans say hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.

Romney’s comment says he doesn’t know much about the political culture. Americans haven’t become childlike worshippers of big government. On the contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think government spending promotes social mobility has fallen.

The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not lovers of big government. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.

Romney’s comment also reveals that he has lost any sense of the social compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term as president, 62 per cent of Republicans believed the government had a responsibility to help those who couldn’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Centre, only 40 per cent of Republicans believe that.

The Republican Party (and apparently Mitt Romney too) has shifted over toward a much more hyper-individualistic and atomistic social view – from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if it doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.

The final thing Romney’s comment suggests is that he knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive; people who receive benefits have dependency. Of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this were true. Middle-class parents don’t deprive their children of benefits so they can learn to struggle on their own. They shower them with benefits to give them more opportunities. People are motivated when they feel competent. They are motivated when they have more opportunities. Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation.

Sure, some government programs cultivate patterns of dependency in some people. I’d put federal disability payments and unemployment insurance in this category. But, as a description of America today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires tell each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about him.

Romney’s presidential campaign is depressingly inept.

Mr Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?